You said – We did!

There was worry from 2 parents expressed that we did not always take account of your suggestions and concerns. This web page YOU SAID – WE DID, is part of our resolve to reassure parents, students and anyone else in our school community that we listen and respond to any concerns you may have.

Over the recent Year we have now established the use of Parent view text service to parents. We frequently use this to inform parents relating to trips, family/SEND meetings and weather conditions in winter.

We listened to the pupils who thought the 2014 website was clunky and “old looking”. So we redeveloped it to include language support tools and make it compliant with national expectations relating to school website information.

We identified a parent (communication) governor to support us in listening and adapting the information sent out by school, to strike the right balance.

We aim to gain parent voice each term through our parent meetings. 2 years ago only 71 parents attended, in Spring 2015 190 parents attended. Many thanks for your growing support and involvement.

Summer 14 – You said “It would be useful to have learning targets better explained” – We now share learning targets within the parent meetings, not simply sent home with pupils.

Autumn 14 – You said “You would like to know more about the work children we doing that term” – We now have termly curriculum introduction parent meetings. These allow us to share topic plans and homework expectations with you and the children.

Autumn 14 – You said “the homework was not helping the children” – We sent home homework surveys with all the children. We took the responces and analysed the results with a parent governor. Homework now reflects the class more closely. It is difficult to gauge a perfect balance as some parents requested more and some less. We have outlined our homework expectations to parents, however simply speak to your pupil’s teacher if you want any individual arrangements.

Spring 14 – You said “you wanted more information in support of pupils with ‘additional needs'” – We have enhanced our SEND capacity. Mrs Karan as SEND leader has put in place pupil profiles for each pupil with specific needs (EAL, SEND and Behavioural). If you have not met already, you will be invited to a meeting with her, to get your views and together shape an appropriate plan of support. We really like opportunities to work together to acheive shared goals.

Summer 15 – You said “A few children in Year 3 were having play equipment taken off them by older children” – We have planned a parent governor review of lunchtime behaviour to take place early September 2015. We have checked the equipment and spoken to pupils. Our school Behaviour Leader is monitoring this. We will post new outcomes back to this page.

Autumn 15 – You said “Some of the little children were getting knocked over at play” – We understand that the start of term is new for our foundation pupils and have now created a separate zone for them to play until they are comfortable to mix in. Our school Buddies are also at hand and being helpful to ensure we get lots of smiles.

Autumn 15 – During PTFA meeting you said “The website is not up to date and the information is not current“. – We have now assigned a member of staff to put specific time aside each week to update elements of the website. Although it will not radically change overnight it should begin to get more up to date. Keep giving us feedback !

Spring 16 – Pupils, staff and parents were asked about what would improve the playground and lunchtime offer. The responses as reported to governors were linked to making lunch less of a canteen and more like a mealtime. In addition to improving play equipment that was cheap and being thrown away. – We now have lifted behaviour expectations at mealtime so children talk to one another politely, new plates and trays are purchased for after the Easter break. A new menu is being implemented with improved fresh food and introduction of a salad bar offer each day. We have quotes from a number of providers and are looking to place an order to build a trim trail and additional fixed playtime activities.

Summer 16 – A number of visitors reported to our office staff nice comments relating to the welcome and politeness of the pupils. We had a complaints procedure but not a compliments book. We are now pleased to receive compliments and have made a new log of these to share with governors. It is always great to receive a nice compliment 🙂

Spring 17 – A parent asked us if it was possible to obtain the weekly events update on her phone as parents would like this. We are pleased to launch the new QRA school App that will do exactly this and you can download this for free from the App store.

Spring 17 – We can see children are accessing homework in the new more flexible way, but some parents told us that they liked the additional activities we once sent home as worksheets. We have invested in a home learning website and paid for each child of our school to access additional learning opportunities. The children click on the link on the class web page on this website. Let us know if they like it.